Political Process Problem: Campaign Financing

Posted Thursday, August 6, 2009, at 11:08 AM

The high cost of political campaigns at just about every level in the United States discourages potential candidates from running for office. Those who do often spend an inordinate amount of time raising money and if elected are frequently subject to pressure from donors.

If you suspect that the high cost of running for office has opened the door for control of government by large political contributors and closed the door on regular voters, read on.

And if you believe that accessible, hardworking, honest, non-dogmatic, progressive, intelligent people are standing on the sidelines because of the costly process, read on.

If you believe that the best and brightest persons in our country are running for and being elected to public office, and that they represent you with no strings attached, you must read on.

Finally, if you are convinced that the problems and challenges we face in the years ahead demand more of our leaders than ever before in history, pay attention. The posts in this political process category are the mothers of the solutions to many of the problems identified in this blog.

Much of this category will focus on federal elections because of my firsthand experience and involvement with them but the principles of clean elections apply at all levels of government.

So far in our posts we have said:

·	We must insist that our elected officials follow the lead of the people, 87 percent of whom are in favor of prohibiting all nuclear explosions (our discussion of the nuclear threat).
·	We must elect members of Congress who realize that foreign affairs policies must be changed and who accept their responsibility in the process (when we wrote about foreign policy).
·	Solving global warming and the energy crisis is not something that can be done without national leadership; our government must take the lead (environment blog).

When we get to our analysis of military spending, we will add:

·	We must elect a President and members of Congress who accept steps to control the use of force and military spending and we must hold them accountable for their fulfillment.

What needs doing to solve our national and global problems simply cannot be done by individuals. It requires fair-minded elected and appointed public officials who approach solutions to problems based on the merits. They cannot be allowed or allow themselves to be influenced by the money that has helped put them in office.

In Congress the problem is fairly clear. A typical member likes his or her job, believes that he is the right person to be doing it, and is trying to do a good job. Members want to keep their jobs and continue to serve; to do so they must have campaign funds.

Money is needed for campaigns; it is clear that wealthy individuals, corporations and special interest groups have it to give. It makes sense to them to buy support with contributions of thousands of dollars in exchange for votes on legislation with the potential to save them millions. And many legislators feel there is a need to keep contributors happy.

As long ago as 1903, contributions were characterized as legalized bribery. One Philadelphia political boss of the time said they were worse because a bribe influenced only one decision while campaign contributions influenced the entire political process.

In America the cycle of influence unfortunately means the rich get richer and the rest of us pay the price. More on Monday--Berkley Bedell.

Berkley Bedell Blog

By Berkley Bedell and Jim Frost

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Berkley Bedell--Retirement from the U.S. Congress in 1987, neither dulled my interest in the well-being of the people of the United States nor my worries about our governance. I began work in 2006 on a book outlining the country's problems and offering solutions. Jim Frost--I share Berkley's concerns and in 2007 began the job of researching, editing and assisting with writing his book. By early 2009, after finally weathering George W. Bush and recognizing how much the past eight wasted years have set the world back, our focus changed. We had seen no meaningful progress in the efforts to stem the threat of nuclear weapons, reverse global warming, preserve natural resources, reduce military spending, fight disease and hunger, improve health care, deal with the increasing gulf between rich people and poor people, establish a workable economic system, or clean up the political process. For us, these three things became self-evident: First, the problems are global; the U.S. cannot by itself control or solve them. Second, the perfect storm of worldwide catastrophe is already upon us; what must be said cannot wait. Third, in seeking solutions, the problems must be put before as many people as possible as quickly as possible. This blog is the result. There will be much more. We invite you to participate.

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